glittering giftables

Sometimes nothing quite exists to fit your theme, or to say what you want to say.  That's when most people hit the net, and place their demands before the crowds on Etsy.  But what to do when you're the type of person that's usually doing the selling on Etsy...?  Well, an artist's toolbox is a deep and many splendored thing, indeed.  So I'm designing gifts and gift bags tailored to the individual tastes of each of my ladies.  I finished my first set today (go me!) and am now trying to recall what I did with the templates for the others. They must be here somewhere...

the gift that keeps giving

Slowly but surely, our collection of things for the house we don't have yet is coming together, helped along by Mr. Cajun's mom.  She recently downsized from the four-bedroom house she'd been living in for the past thirty-some years to a two-bedroom condo and has since been doling out furniture and artwork left and right to her children and their families; I suspect she'd rather that someone she knows get these things rather than someone who has no understanding of their worth or sentimental meaning.

Back in April, Mr. Cajun and I came away from our first trip out with a set of rather nice bookcases for Mr. Cajun's home office, a storage cabinet for my future workroom, and an exquisite Ti Ju Eia that had belonged to Mr. Cajun's grandparents.  Most recently, she asked us to come out to look at some paintings and ended up also offering us a living room set (a chaise, two chairs, two tables, and a curio cabinet) carved with dragons...along with our pick of anything we want that's currently in the curio cabinet, and that's quite a lot.  No decision has been made yet about the furniture because we have no place to store it as yet, but we did walk away with several rooms worth of art.  At this rate, we may not need to buy much when we're ready to move...

fully accessorized

After weeks of piecing my wedding day attire together bit by bit, I am finally fully accessorized.  Mr. Cajun gave me the jewelry I think I'm going to wear back at Christmas; the shoes I ended up ordering to match arrived in March; and my dress--which I wasn't expecting until June--arrived just a few weeks ago.  But I had been up in the air about what I was going to do with my hair up until the day before I went to pick up my dress.  The only things I knew for certain were that I didn't want a traditional veil, that I was wearing my hair up--summer in the south is hot--and that there would be no curls because my hair will absolutely not hold curl without using enough hairspray to turn me into a walking fire hazard.  My sister and I spent the better part of an afternoon searching The Knot and Pinterest, narrowing the jumble down to perhaps a half-dozen possibilities, but I still wasn't sure.  

Then wandering through the mall, I caught sight of a window display advertising tiaras and other jeweled adornments.  And sitting with them, almost overwhelmed by the mass of flowers, feathers, and crystals next to it, was the piece that made everything click: a delicate sterling hair comb set with pearls and crystals to match the pattern already in my dress, garter, and 'something old.'  The shop was already packed with teens making last-minute preparations for prom, but I squeezed my way inside (being small is good for some things) and snatched the last one before anyone else looking for something less gaudy could realize that it was still there.  For the icing on the cake, I paid only a fifth of what the bridal salon would have charged for something similar.  Which was rather ironic, given that the name of the shop was Icing.

purple and green and gold all over

imagine this in purple...

After far too much ado for simply scheduling an appointment (30 minutes of being put on hold, then speaking to five different associates, four of whom apparently couldn't set appointments despite picking up the phone at the scheduling desk) I finally got Baby Cajun and my one local bridesmaid to start trying on dresses.  I don't think I've ever seen quite so many shades of purple in one place unless it was in a flower garden. Unfortunately, my bridesmaids are not a garden except in a figurative sense and so the hunt was on.

traffic cones...?

Going in, the only thing I was certain I wanted was for the dresses to be chiffon; it's a very forgiving fabric, figure-flattering for most, and the least likely of the available options to cause my maids to fling themselves into the fountains to escape the heat.  During my previous consultation, J threw an option on the table that I hadn't considered: two dress colors and two complementary styles to suit all my ladies.  While I've decided to go with just a single color (wisteria),the two-dress idea won the vote.  In theory, that should have made my decision easier.  But trying to find two dresses that were complementary that everyone could agree on had its ups and downs.

too short...?

no match...?

In one set of dresses, the limited selection of sizes meant that the styles were swapped; Baby Cajun was wearing the dress intended for Em and vice versa.  In another, we couldn't find a shorter counterpart to coordinate with the longer dress that we all liked.

too many ruffles...

The chiffon dresses with contrasting satin ruffles looked gorgeous on both.  But, well, they were ruffled, which seemed to be a bit of a sticking point with Baby Cajun even though the dress had been one of her top picks from the picture book.  Second thoughts, perhaps...?

just right :)

Em finally decided that she liked the long dresses better, and the very first one that she'd tried on the best of the three we'd looked at; since this one also had the vote of Big Sis, that settled the first half of the dress equation.  The corresponding short style, though, had been vetoed for excessive ruffles.  So I sent Baby Cajun back to the fitting room for the first dress she'd tried on with the single diagonal drape.  Seeing the two dresses side by side sealed the deal.  Unless someone has a last-minute change of heart, I think we may be saying yes to the dress(es)!

turn on-on the camera

Now that the final decision with regard to our photographer has been made, I'll confess to being slightly biased.  Even before we'd set a date, even before the engagement was made official really, I've had a pretty good idea of who I wanted as my wedding photographer; the sheer volume and quality of work from this particular vendor has always left me breathless.  All photographers are not created equal, no matter what some people may try to tell you; I've seen some very good examples of 'you get what you pay for' and even been a victim of the 'one photographer is as good as the next' philosophy.

Mr. Cajun was another matter.  To start, he doesn't like being photographed, which meant that anyone we picked would have to make him feel at ease enough to look comfortable in pictures...or better yet not let him realize he's being photographed at all.  He's not one to sink a large amount of money into something unless he believes that it's necessary; so the starting price around here for just a basic package from a lower-end photographer was something of a shock.  And he's also an incredibly technical type with very little in the way of artistic vision.  So I had him look at the portfolios of several local photographer and choose three strictly on their technical quality; then of course we interviewed to determine chemistry.

And the winner is...

Bill Murray's On-On Digitography

squeals of delight, finally

My dress, which we weren't expecting to arrive until June, made its appearance early.  Given all the difficulty we experienced finding and then ordering said dress, I'll admit to somewhat dreading what would happen when IT finally arrived.  Would it fit properly?  Would it even be the correct gown?  Would my first fitting be as much of a debacle as the whole ordering process?  I'd worked myself into such a state worrying about it that by Saturday morning I was certain I was going to be sick waiting for them to open the store.

We finally got inside, and when the clerk pulled up my records, we discovered that B had put another consultant's name to my account in the system rather than hers; there was no written proof that she had even been my consultant at all if anything was wrong with the dress.  At that point I was ready to burst into tears.  The clerk though simply handed me off to J--a consultant I'd never before met, let alone worked with--as if nothing were wrong.  And thank God for small miracles.   Although I wasn't one of 'his' brides, J immediately set to work at calming me back down, babbling about anything and everything in an attempt to get me to laugh.  He walked one of my MOHs through lacing a corset, and even did my jewelry and my hair!  He turned what had thus far been a total disaster into a much more positive experience.  Even my mother, who can be notoriously hard to please (and hates DB with passion) was impressed with him.  Why--why--could I not have had this kind of service all the way through...?

dress delima

The web is filled with bridesmaid horror stories: awfully colored and/or styled dresses, bridezilla brides, bridal party power struggles, and the list goes on.  It's the kind of thing it's typical for my family to be involved in, and the last thing I want my wedding to be remembered for.  So in a preemptive strike, I've decided to turn planning into a collaborative effort and give my maids at least some say in what's going on.  It won't be easy--I don't see how coordinating across four time zones could be--but it'll certainly be fun.

Which brings us to the first minor hiccup in bridesmaid planning: the dresses.  I've done a bit of preliminary looking around, to get a few ideas before launching into anything serious.  David's Bridal has a large selection of styles and colors, and--usually--the best prices when it comes to formal and semi-formal dresses; and using them would be convenient because they have stores everywhere.  Alfred Angelo has a number of gorgeous gowns as well, but sells through various 'front stores' rather than under a single name, making it difficult to guarantee that every bridesmaid would get a chance to see the dress and/or try it on before ordering.  The prices are slightly higher, and they typically have a minimum four month turnaround on dress orders.

updated 4/17/12:
Did some more digging around on the net today, and managed to find an AA within 50 miles or less of everyone.  The closest DB to Mountain Home is Boise, and the closest to Pullman is Spokane. Would this be a reasonable distance for everyone to drive...?  Any feedback/comments...?